The international law gaze: Marshall Island v United Kingdom

The International Court of Justice recently bowed to nuclear weapons States and disappointed the rest of the international community. Forty-two years after the Court’s astonishing decision in declaring the dispute on nuclear tests between New Zealand and France terminated (Nuclear Test Case (New Zealand v. France), [1974] I.C.J. Rep. 458, at [54]), a new chapter on the reluctance of the Court to deal with nuclear weapons took place in its judgment of 5 October 2016 on Preliminary Objections in Obligations Concerning Negotiations Relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marshall Islands v United Kingdom). There, the Court declared that it lacked jurisdiction, since there was no dispute between the parties. (Marshall Islands v UK, at [59])